Adult Attachment Classifications

• The Handbook of Attachment explores attachment theory through research, theory, and clinical applications
• It is edited by Jude Cassidy and Phillip R. Shaver

The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI)

• In 1985, Main, Kaplan, and Cassidy published research emphasizing narratives from the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI)
• The AAI assesses individuals' attachment-related childhood experiences and their influence on development and current functioning
• Transcribed responses from the interviews could be systematically categorized into three adult attachment classifications

Adult Attachment Classifications

• Secure-autonomous: Valuing of attachment relationships and experiences, with objective perspectives
• Dismissing: Dismissing, devaluing, or cut off from attachment relationships and experiences
• Preoccupied: Preoccupied with early attachments or attachment-related experiences
• AAI text analysis focuses on overall coherence and considers contradictions and inconsistencies in the narrative

Predictive Power

• Differences in language use relevant to attachment, rather than retrospective judgements, are the basis of analysis
• Five major classifications are derived from full text analysis: secure, dismissing, preoccupied, unresolved/disorganized, and cannot classify
• Recent AAI applications include intervention process estimation, determination of insecurity rates in disadvantaged groups, and the search for interaction patterns

AAI Structure

• The AAI protocol has a prespecified format and question order with specific probes to encourage variations in life history presentation
• Interviewers are directed to serve only as a highlight and not alter participants' tendencies to respond
• The AAI lasts about an hour and consists of 20 questions with verbatim transcription that included timed pauses
• The interview begins with a description of childhood relationships with parents and requests for five adjectives per parent

Question Topics

• Closeness to Parents and Emotion Handling: This aspect examines which parent the speaker felt a stronger emotional connection to during their formative years. It also delves into the reasons for this attachment, including shared interests, personality compatibility, or supportive behaviors. Furthermore, it addresses the emotional responses and coping strategies the speaker developed as a child, such as expressing affection, seeking comfort, or feeling secure or insecure, influenced by parental responsiveness and nurturing.
• Salient Experiences: This area focuses on significant events and experiences that shaped the speaker's understanding of familial relationships. It highlights instances of notable separations, such as parental divorce, prolonged absences, or even loss due to death. Additionally, it explores feelings of rejection, especially in the context of favoritism or unmet needs from parents. The feeling of being threatened regarding discipline can manifest as fear or anxiety about punitive measures, leading to a complex relationship with authority figures that continues into adulthood.
• Effects and Perceptions: This section analyzes how childhood experiences have influenced the speaker's personality and behavior as an adult. It reflects on the long-term impact of parenting styles, whether authoritative, permissive, or neglectful. The speaker's perceptions of their parents’ behaviors during childhood play a crucial role in shaping their adult relationships, self-esteem, and worldview. Furthermore, it considers the internalized images or expectations of parent figures, which can create a lens through which the speaker views their own parenting or future aspirations.
• Loss and Abuse: Here, the focus shifts to more profound emotional impacts stemming from the loss of significant figures, whether through death or other forms of separation. It delves into how these experiences of loss contribute to grief processing and affect interpersonal dynamics. Furthermore, any encounters with abuse—be it physical, emotional, or psychological—are examined in terms of their lasting effects on trust, vulnerability, and relational patterns, which may manifest in both personal and professional spheres.
• Current Relationships: This part explores the present dynamics between the speaker and their living parents. It examines the quality of communication, emotional connection, and any unresolved issues that may persist into adulthood. Additionally, it reflects on feelings of separation or distance from children, especially regarding the desire to break patterns of previous generations or to create a supportive environment. The speaker might grapple with feelings of guilt, pride, or longing as they navigate these relationships.
• Future Projections: In contemplating the future, this section speculates about the speaker's hopes and wishes for their real or imagined children twenty years from now. It encompasses aspirations for the children's emotional well-being, values, and life choices. Additionally, it considers the potential influence of the speaker's upbringing on their parenting style. Reflections might include a desire to establish a nurturing and communicative home environment, ensuring that their children feel valued and secure—an effort to foster a different familial experience compared to their own.
• Closeness to Parents and Emotion Handling: Reiterated for emphasis, this aspect encourages a deeper exploration of how attachment styles formed in childhood influence adult emotional responses and relationship-building strategies. It prompts reflections on whether these patterns promote healthy relationships or create barriers to intimacy and trust as the speaker matures.
• Salient Experiences: Emphasizing significant events in the speaker's upbringing invites further introspection about the role of critical moments in shaping emotional intelligence and resilience. It opens pathways for understanding how these experiences are processed and integrated into the speaker's narrative and worldview.
• Effects and Perceptions: This notion raises awareness of the potential disconnect between the speaker's perception of their parents and the reality of their behavior. It encourages a nuanced view of parents as complex figures who may have acted from their vulnerabilities, shaping their offspring's adult handling of personal relationships and conflicts.
• Loss and Abuse: Revisiting the themes of loss and abuse illuminates the potential for both healing and continued struggle. Recognizing these influences invites the speaker to engage with the possible pathways of recovery and integration of their past into a healthier emotional framework.
• Current Relationships: Analyzing ongoing family dynamics allows the speaker to assess their fulfillment and the shadows of past experiences that may linger. It encourages proactive engagement in these relationships, facilitating healing or closure where necessary.
• Future Projections: Contemplating their legacy, the speaker can consider the cyclical nature of familial influence, pondering how to create a more loving and supportive future for their imagined or real children, breaking the cycle of adverse patterns that may have impacted their upbringing.

Key Tasks and Conversational Aspects

• Central task: producing and reflecting on memories related to attachment and simultaneously maintaining consistent, collaborative discourse
• George and colleagues mention the potential of the protocol to surprise the unconscious
• AAI requires answering complex questions regarding life history and contrasts ordinary conversations
• Opportunities for speakers to contradict themselves, be unable to answer clearly, or be drawn into lengthy or digressive discussions
• Incoherencies may occur due to the failure to maintain control over the story

Analysis of Organized Responses

• Analysis is based on attentional and linguistic mechanisms, the former being Main's flexibility versus inflexibility of attention under stress
• Linguistic mechanism analysis comes from Grice's maxims are well-represented in the central AAI state-of-mind scales
• The interview contains conversational aspects that permit its analysis in terms of conversational requirements

Grice’s Conversational Maxims

• Quality: Truthful and have evidence for what you say’
• Quantity: Succinct and complete’
• Relation: relevant to the topic as presented’
• Manner: clear and orderly’

Violations

• Quality: Highly positive descriptions contradicted by biographical episodes of dismissing.
• Quantity: Excessive short is dismissing and excessively long - is preoccupied’.
• Relation: irrelevantly discussed topics is pre occupied’.
• Manner: gramatically and ineffectively is preoccupied’.

Analyzing Responses

• Interview questions 3 and 10 are the most useful for characterizing individual differences in AAI queries
• Examine for how that aligns with organized AAI classification

Attentional Patterns

• Dismissing: unable to focus attention on untoward effects, or a difficulty in relationships
• Secure: speaker readily can turn attention to untoward ramifications
• Preoccupied: inflexible focus on the parent rather than query itself

Central Task

• For participants to produce and reflect on memories related to attachment, while simulataneously maintaining coherent, collaborative discourse

AAI Components

• Transcripts: the inclusion of speaker comments and interviewees
• Protocol: arranged for structural variations
• Coherence focus

State Of Mind Scales

• Coherence of transcripts: rate the speaker’s flow of ideas regarding attachment
• Metacognitive monitoring: evidence of active monitoring
• Idealization of the speaker's primary attachement figure’
• Insistence on lack of memory for childhood’
• Active, derogating dismissal of attachment-related experiences’
• Involved/involving anger expressed toward primary attachment figure(s)’
• Passivity or vagueness in discourse ’

Continuous Scoring System For States Of Mind

• 9 - point system
• Coherence
• Idealization
• Lack of memory

Scale Focus

• Focuses on coherence and language use
• Each continuous scale has 1 - 9 measurement

Scales For Quality And Maxums

• Quality: (Be truthful)
• Quantity: (Be succinct)
• Relation: (Be relevant)
• Manner: (Be be clear)

Organization Scales

• The scales are rated based off security in infant, dismissing and preoccupied classifications

AAI Scoring

• Based on all elements used, scorers can record first estimate of organized classication
• Also considering whether they’re unorganized or unclassifiable

Text Classifications

• Transcripts are examined through classifications using AAI scales
• In addition to disorganized or unable to classify

Manual Updates

• Continuous updates
• Several volumes

AAI Types

• Secure Autonomies - Free easy recall
• Dismissive - Uninvolved
• Unresolved- Dismissive

Infant Attachment

• All types
• Avoidance
• Ambivalent/Ressistant

Organized categories

• Speaker shows definitive strategy through interview

Scale Considerations

• Assess central aspects and unloving aspects of each

Study Notes

• These AAI classifications show and illustrate coherence

Disorganized Classifications

• Lapses in monitoring reasoning manifest
• Violating physical and time-spatial relations

Testing Methods

• Testing involves the relationship of AAI traits and infant interactions

Clinical Note

• Useful for assessing state of mind

Category Relationships

• Relates to relationship challenges

Scale Scoring

• All factors to consider in test,
• Test scoring involves 9 point testing system
• Scales for disorganized attachment are higher than usual

Scale Focus

• Can be rated during several events
• No one for one comparison

Data Organization

• Test scores need to be followed to better classify test data

Study Notes

• High rates are more common
• Requires testing and assessment

Clinical Relationships

• Can have relationships to high psychoses

Interconnected Test Sections

• All sections
• All elements to test coherence and focus

Infant Test Notes

• Testing can be done but often times not the test

Text Note

• Tests are rated higher when coherence is in the text